The lost story of Hatter's Court …………….

I don’t suppose many people bother with this narrow thoroughfare that connects Marshall Street with Addington Street.

It belongs in that island between Rochdale Road and Oldham Road and is full of open spaces, tired looking warehouses and a few new developments.

It has for decades been a place waiting for something to happen, and while the developers nibble at the edges most of it still looks as it did thirty years ago.

So apart from the odd car that parks up our tiny  street is just a place that accumulates discarded bottles, cans and other rubbish.

But it has a story which if you go back far enough marks it out as the narrow back entry into Hatter's Court, which consisted of eleven properties facing onto the court.  Five of the twelve houses were back-to-back and a search of the Directories has revealed the place didn’t warrant an entry.

Not that I am surprised, because Hatter’s Court and countless others were homes to the poor and as such didn’t get a mention.

Eight of the occupants are listed in the rate books, but despite having those eight names none have so far turned up on the census records.

And only two of them, a John Weston and a Patrick Dowling do we have an occupation for.  Both were a shoemakers, but as the census records are silent there is as yet no way of knowing their age, place of birth or any details of a possible family.

I know that all of the eight listed in the rate books were owned by the same landlord who charged a rent of3 shillings a week which appears to be the going rate for houses in the nearby streets.

The court was still there in 1894 but by then one of houses had been incorporated into its neighbour and four of the original back to backs were enlarged to form bigger houses facing Addington Street.

Sometime after that the court vanished under a new warehouse and there the story ends.

Breaking News, but just eight hours after the story went live, as I continued to search for John Weston and Patrick Dowling in 1851, I turned up the census record for the decade before ...... with the 42 men, women and children who lived in Hatter's Court, revealing their occupations, places of birth, ages and occupations ..... now that's a new story for Sunday.

Location Marshall Street

Pictures; the street with no name and little history, 2023, from the collection of Andrew Simpson, and in 1850 from Adshead’s map of Manchester, courtesy of Digital Archives Association, http://www.digitalarchives.co.uk/